What if digitalization isn’t the climate fix we imagined?
Smart cities and paperless offices promised efficiency. Thirty years of data from the world’s largest economies suggest the energy needed to power them has so far outweighed the savings.
A new study reveals that the digitalization of economies is actually increasing environmental burdens rather than decreasing them. Researchers analyzed data from the G20 economies, representing 80% of global GDP and 70% of carbon emissions, from 1990 to 2023. They examined three digitalization indicators: internet usage, landline telephone subscriptions, and cellular subscriptions.
The study found that all three indicators are associated with higher carbon emissions. The main contributor to these emissions is the energy needed to build and power digital infrastructure, including data centers and communication networks. The researchers expected that early stages of digitalization, like landline phone use, would increase environmental burden, but instead, it continues to rise with the growth of the internet and cellular subscriptions.
The findings suggest that for digitalization to have positive environmental benefits, clean energy must power it—a shift that has not yet been widely implemented globally.
Written by urgent.news from Anthropocene Magazine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
